diy project: flower frog wall art

You can find flower frogs by the dozens at flea markets, antique stores and on eBay. They come in all shapes and sizes, and the prices start at a couple dollars. My mother has collected frogs for at least 10 years, and I have always loved them for their form and simplicity. Flower frogs have been used in floral arranging for centuries, but here I have used them as wall art. My mother has been wanting to show off her collection; this way she can display them, and when she wants to use one for flowers, she can easily access it by simply taking it off of its nail. Enjoy! — Haylie

craft paper or recycled paper sack (size depends on the space you are filling)

measuring tool

chalk or pencil

tape

scissors

spray paint (optional)

heavy floral wire

wire cutters

hammer

nails

Instructions

1. Measure your space, length and width.

2. Cut your paper to size and tape it to the wall to be sure it fits; you can make any size adjustments from here.

3. Layout your collection, arrange it and then be sure to view it from above — the perspective is going to be much different once it’s on the wall, so keep that in mind. Once you have something laid out, trace each piece in chalk and mark the best hanging spot. Frogs are great because they usually have a hanging feature built in (the holes) and if they don’t, we can fix that (see Step 5).

4. If you have a frog that is a bit lackluster and needs to “pop,” don’t be afraid to give it a fresh layer of paint. For my mother’s collection, I wanted some metallics.

5. This frog is unusual for its shape, but the pin/spoke style is common. The back of this leaf is just as interesting as the spoke side, so I decided to hang it by a piece of floral wire that can easily be removed when needed. The arrow shows the hanging point.

6. Hang your template on the wall and before you nail into it, be sure you are happy with your layout. If there are any pieces you want to move around, save those for last. For the frogs that you are happy with, go ahead and hammer a nail through the spots you have marked, then hang those frogs. Now you can make any placement changes for your questionable frogs, and then finish putting up the nails. Before you remove the paper, hang all of your frogs to be sure you like the arrangement. Then take them all down and remove your template carefully; you don’t want to ruin it so that you can reference it to rehang the frogs!

awesome! i have a bunch of frogs i inherited from my
ikebana-loving grandmother. i use some on my counter top as a
combination drying rack/organization of paintbrushes, but putting
them on the wall is a great idea!

Wow. Nice idea of decorating a wall. I don’t know that I can decorate my dull wall into a stylish one without spending bucks of money. I love it so much. Thanks for posting this article. Keep up the good work.

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